The Museum of Modern Art announces Projects: Tadáskía, an exhibition in the museum’s street galleries from May 24 to October 14, 2024, as well as the acquisition of the exhibition’s centerpiece, an extensive paper work titled ‘Ave Preta Mística Mystical Black Bird’ (2022), for the MoMA collection.
Tadáskía is a multidisciplinary artist based in Rio de Janeiro who uses drawing, sculpture, and mixed media to articulate themes of transformation and joy influenced by her experiences as a black trans woman.
The exhibition, presented in collaboration with the Studio Museum in Harlem, will be the artist’s first solo presentation in the United States.
Projects: Tadáskía is organized by Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Ana Torok, Sue and Eugene Mercy Jr. Assistant Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, MoMA, with assistance from Kiki Teshome, curatorial assistant, Studio Museum in Harlem.
Partly inspired by the 17th-century fables of Jean de La Fontaine, Mystical Black Bird consists of 61 sheets of paper that combine the artist’s free-form drawings with poetic texts in Portuguese and English.
Tadáskía (Rio de Janeiro, 1993) is a black trans artist who lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. She holds a degree in Visual Arts from UERJ (2012-2016) and a master’s in Education from UFRJ (2019-2021). Her work in drawing, photography, installation, and textiles mobilizes invented and mystical landscapes. Through her practice, she also seeks to elaborate on the imaginative experiences of the black diaspora, around family and foreign encounters.